Dr. Ashton deserves credit for his pioneering work in word
processing that has forever changed the way we use computers. Since selling
his ownership in WordPerfect he has built Thanksgiving Point.
Ashton is the grandson of late Mormon Church president David O.
McKay.

James Cannonmathematician

He is a professor of mathematics at BYU who played a key
role in the classification of simple groups.Source: Famous LDS
Scientists

www.ieee.org

Edwin Catmull

computer animation

Computer
animation pioneer; co-founder of Pixar

From
CNN A COMPANY like Pixar wasn't what Ed Catmull had in mind when he
first hatched his plan to use computers to make animated films. But in
hindsight, this company couldn't exist without a leader who cites Pinocchio,
Peter Pan, and Einstein as the cultural heroes of his youth. Catmull grew up in
Salt Lake City as one of five children in a Mormon family. As a kid he made
"flip-books" filled with crude animation, and dreamed of working for Disney one
day. His favorite character was a hybrid of a man and a unicycle." CNN.com

Dr. Ed Catmull, president and co-founder of Pixar Animation
Studios, has made groundbreaking contributions to the field of computer graphics
in modeling, animation and rendering that have revolutionized the way
live-action and animated motion pictures are created. Dr. Catmull is one of the
architects of the RenderMan® software product utilized to create animated films
such as Pixar’sToy
StoryandFinding
Nemoand
special effects in live-action films. www.ieee.org

Bernard Daines

Creator
of new and innovative cluster computing solutions

In 1999 Time magazine did an article on the 100 people most
likely to influence the next century and included Bernard on the list.

Daines
is widely recognized as instrumental in pioneering Ethernet technology,
especially the IEEE standards for Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet
networking technology. In 2002, Daines was elected chairman of the board of
Linux NetworX.

He is a professor of mathematics at the University of
Michigan who proved a long standing conjecture about the optimal stacking
method of spheres.Source: Famous LDS
Scientists

After receiving his PhD
from Princeton in 1986, Tom Hales took up a post doc at Berkeley, and then
positions at Harvard, Chicago and Michigan. Tom's research interests lie in
algebra and geometry. In 1998 Tom Hales astonished mathematicians across the
World by confirming the 400 year old Kepler Conjecture, and followed that by
proving the even more venerable Honeycomb Conjecture. (For more information on
the Kepler and Honeycomb Conjectures see Cannonballs and Honeycomb
below.)
The proof of the Kepler Conjecture relied in part on extensive and intricate
computer calculations, and Tom is now looking at ways to take that further, and
investigate to what extent computers can be used to prove other difficult
theorems.

Drew Majorcomputer software
engineer

He helped develop the original NetWare, and has played an
integral role in designing and developing every release of the Network
Operating System which seems to be everywhere. In 2000, Drew was inducted
into the Computer Hall of Fame. He was also named as one of the top ten most
influential persons in the computer industry by BYTE Magazine.

Photo: Ensemble Studios

Sandy Petersencomputer game designer

He is
a member of the Gaming Hall of Fame (1990), and was involved in the
production of such award winning game titles as Civilization, Doom, Doom 2, Quake, Rise of Rome, Age of Kings, The
Conquerors, Age of Empires 3, and The War Chiefs. As with
some other successful computer game designers, Petersen's roots are in
the board game industry. His illustrious portfolio includes Runequest, Call of Cthulhu, and Petersen's Field Guide to Monsters.
As an internationally recognized game designer and writer, Petersen's
works have been published worldwide.

He
served a mission to Los Angeles and has been active in the Church since
his early life. He has five
children ages 27, 25, 21, 20, and 16 and has 2 grandchildren.
He and his four sons are Eagle Scouts. He is a High Priest in the
Rockwall Ward in Texas.

Peek, Died when he was 58, He was likely the world's most famous
savant, enduring mental handicaps while at the same time possessing
extraordinary gifts of memory and recall.

Peek was born on Nov. 11, 1951. At 9 months, doctors said he was severely
mentally retarded. "They told us we should institutionalize him because he
would never walk or talk," Fran Peek said. "But we refused to do that."

By 16 months, Peek demonstrated extraordinary abilities. He could read and
memorize entire volumes of information.

"He could find anything he wanted to. He read all of Shakespeare, the Old
and New Testaments," Fran Peek said.

An MRI later showed that his brain lacked a corpus callosum -- the
connecting tissue between the left and right hemispheres. Peek said his
son's brain lacked the normal filtering system for receiving information.
The condition left him able to retain nearly 98 percent of everything he
read, heard or watched on television. The average person only retains about
45 percent. As both a child and adult, Peek's favorite place was the
library, where he devoured books at a confounding rate. At the time of his
death, Peek is believed to have committed at least 9,000 books to memory.

Deseret news

Roger Portereconomist

He served for more than a decade in senior economic policy positions in the White House,
most recently as Assistant to the President for Economic and Domestic Policy from 1989-1993.
He served as Director of the White House Office of Policy Development in the Reagan Administration
and as Executive Secretary of the President's Economic Policy Board during the Ford Administration.Source: Harvard

Richard B. Wirthlineconomist

He is best known as President Reagan's strategist and pollster.
At the White House, he was a close and trusted advisor to President Reagan.
He directed all of the President's opinion surveys,
analyzed trends and regularly briefed the President and Cabinet officers on American attitudes about everything from education,
jobs and taxes to issues of war and peace.
He participated in White House planning and strategy sessions,
and played a key role in communications planning.
He was chief strategist for two of the most sweeping presidential victories in the history of the United States.
In 1981 he was acclaimed "Adman of the Year" by Advertising Age for his role in the 1980 campaign.